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A Series of Jump Cuts?


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Some time ago I came upon this scene from a Turkish soap opera Küzey Güney.

 

 

Is this a SERIES OF JUMP CUTS and how would you shape it in a screenplay?

Might it perhaps go something like this? (The scene is imaginary, because Küzey wishes he could snap on Simay like this.)
BEGIN IMAGINARY SEQUENCE:
INT. KÜZEY’S HOUSE/ENTRANCE HALL – NIGHT
(A SERIES OF) JUMP CUTS…
And then every time a cut happens, I start a new dialogue sequence or describe a reaction (perhaps a reaction with a – in front of the description, to denote that it’s a separate cut), include a BACK TO SCENE for reality sequences, and end it all with END IMAGINARY SEQUENCE. With a full stop there.

How would you do it?

Edited by Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos
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They're not really jump cuts in my book. A jump cut is a serious break in continuity- the archetypical, though extreme, example being the bone to the spaceship in 2001. The different setups don't always match well in tone, but that doesn' tmake them jump cuts. It's hard to be sure because of the language barrier, but I don't think it's intentional- the playing is uneven.

Anyway a shooting script probably wouldn't go into that sort of detail. The director decides the setups and the editor cuts the scene.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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The more I think about it, and google this, it seems like a jump cut. A jump cut seems to be a cut between two “events” happening at the same spot, location, with a few seconds snipped between them. Here, even with the language barrier, I kind of think it is evident that there are jumps between his lines/yelling. I got the impression that a jump cut usually doesn’t include a change in framing, which in this scene, obviously, changes. So perhaps that can be an issue. I don’t really see a way for this to be thought up by the editor without it being visible in the script. But that might just be me. Or, in any case, perhaps I exactly do want to specify it to be shot in this way for some specific and very good reason.

 

Here is an example of a few jump cuts.

 

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After 2:13 here there are several nice examples. The bone to the spaceship is a match cut.

 

 

 

Sure, at a stretch, but it's a jump cut too.

 

The more I think about it, and google this, it seems like a jump cut. A jump cut seems to be a cut between two “events” happening at the same spot, location, with a few seconds snipped between them. Here, even with the language barrier, I kind of think it is evident that there are jumps between his lines/yelling. I got the impression that a jump cut usually doesn’t include a change in framing, which in this scene, obviously, changes. So perhaps that can be an issue. I don’t really see a way for this to be thought up by the editor without it being visible in the script. But that might just be me. Or, in any case, perhaps I exactly do want to specify it to be shot in this way for some specific and very good reason.

 

Here is an example of a few jump cuts.

 

That was obviously shot as one or two long takes. Cutting it like that evokes urgency, discomfort, whatever. The editor may get his cue from the script but I don't know if it would have editing instructions in it.

It doesn't apply to your example, but whereas years ago there would have been dissolves, nowadays audiences are editorially literate enough to accept a certain amount of jump-cutting to denote passage of time in a scene.

Edited by Mark Dunn
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You can break a script into planned jump cuts. For example, you can put an indication of a short time later into the scene heading "Day - Moments later" However, that may not be a jump cut if the director changes camera angle, so that there's no "jump". Using dashes can imply edits or time jumps within a scene.

 

The problems may be that the actor may need dialogue to flow between the jump cuts and the script readers and editors may not get it and become confused

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Hmm, yes. Perhaps then, since a jump cut usually seems to imply no change in framing (although that Good example video does include changes), perhaps it can be QUICK TIME CUTS or QUICK CUTS (my least favourite option, I don’t know why; I guess because it doesn’t seem to imply this sort of urgency as in that scene from the Turkish series above or something like that.). I was thinking perhaps a screenwriter might include a note in the description that each new dialogue block from the same character has a jump cut before it. But then again, a jump cut might happen between lines from different characters. Which makes me think I might then put CUT in the description or, perhaps better, though using more space and looking very technic-y, put that CUT where the CUT usually shoud be, flushed right, where transitions go.

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Sure, at a stretch, but it's a jump cut too.

 

Hmm. I was thinking about this just after I posted, and it perhaps might be said that it is a match jump cut (or jump match cut?). But then, I dunno. I’m not exactly sure. It does look like a simple match cut. Maybe it could probably be one of those Creative Combinations Cuts and Transitions 101 speaks about above after around 9:04.

 

 

That was obviously shot as one or two long takes. Cutting it like that evokes urgency, discomfort, whatever. The editor may get his cue from the script but I don't know if it would have editing instructions in it.
It doesn't apply to your example, but whereas years ago there would have been dissolves, nowadays audiences are editorially literate enough to accept a certain amount of jump-cutting to denote passage of time in a scene.
Edited by Alexandros Angelopoulos Apostolos
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